RE: Urggg! A patron review of the III patron authentication screen...

["Seeman, Corey Glenn" <CSeeman@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Jon -- I feel your pain.  

I had a circulation student at one of our locations say that he was going to design a better system since ours is no good.  (Funny, I have not heard back yet).  I also had someone come in once with the answers to all of Innovative's issues.  

In many regards, the patron has very good ideas and suggestions for moving the system forward.  In my communication-based presentations on living with your INNOPAC, I have talked about the need to be responsive to what people are saying and asking for.  Sometimes this is an opportunity for considering what you are offering the public,  but in some cases, involves additionally purchases or changes to the software.  In addressing your patron's points, he might not be too far off the mark.   Joe Reimers and Martha Driscoll brought up the good points about the system changes, but may be moot if you do not have e-mail circ noticed. 

I very much want to hear from our patrons and staff who want to stretch the system past our current use.  Typically, people come from a much nicer and kinder position and do not put the systems coordinator on the defensive right off the bat.  Certainly this makes it much easier and more enjoyable to make the modifications to the system. 

For people who approach this as your writer did, I must refer to one of the all-time classic movie moments.  In this exchange early in "Annie Hall", by Woody Allen (I think I used his Catskill's joke in a previous posting), Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) is in line at the movies in front of a guy who is pontificating about the media:  

Alvy Singer (Stepping out of line): What do you do when you get stuck in a movie line with a guy like this behind you? I mean, it's just madening!

Man in Line: Wait a minute, why can't I give my opinion?  It's a free country!

Alvy: I mean, d- He can give you-  Do you hafta give it so loud?  I mean, aren't you ashamed to pontificate like that?  And-and the funny part of it is, Mashall McLuhan, you don't know anything about Marshall McLuhan's work!

Man: Wait a minute!  Really? Really? I happen to teach a class at Columbia called "TV Media and Culture"! So I think that my insights into Mr. McLuhan-well, have a great deal of validity.

Alvy: Oh, do yuh?

Man: Yes.

Alvy: Well, that's funny, because I happen to have Mr. McLuhan right here.  So...so, here, just let me-I mean, all right.  Come over here...a second.

Man: Oh.

Alvy (To McLuhan): Tell him.

Marshall McLuhan (Played by himself): I hear-I heard what you were saying.  You-you know nothing of my work.  You mean, my whole fallacy is wrong.  How you ever got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing.

Alvy: Boy, if life were only like this!

--end--

Maybe that wasn't the best way to spend the last ten minutes, but it is one of those great moments of the silver screen that just works for people like this.

Have a great weekend 

Best -- Corey

Corey Seeman
Assistant Dean for Resource & Systems Management
Assistant Professor, University Libraries
Carlson Library
Mailstop #509 
University of Toledo
2801 W. Bancroft
Toledo, OH 43606

---------------
corey.seeman@xxxxxxxxxx 
419.530.2333 (phone)
419.530-2403 (fax)
http://library.utoledo.edu
http://library.utoledo.edu/userhomes/cseeman/

-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Jiras [mailto:jjjwml@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, September 19, 2003 10:21 AM
To: innopac@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Urggg! A patron review of the III patron authentication
screen...


Hello Innopacers:

Here's an email I thought I would share with all of you that we received
from an Information Technology professor informing us that he has placed
our catalog's hold/renew books feature in his "hall of shame".  Some of
what he says here is just misinformed, but what is really annoying about
all this is that it shows that people assume the patron
authentication/request features we designed and programmed and are
things over which we have total control.

It's so frustrating!

Jon Jiras
Library Software Specialist
Wallace Library
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester, NY 14623
585-475-7737
jjjwml@xxxxxxxxxx

[snip]
I'm teaching Human Factors this semester in IT, so I'm very attuned to
web design issues right now.  But these would get my attention in any
case.  I hope you find these suggestions helpful.
 
1)  The request/hold system has all the information it needs to email
users when a requested book comes in.  Daily checks are a great job for
a system and a crummy job for a machine.
 
The system requires users to login again (and again) for each inquiry
even within a session.  Furthermore the login is more complicated than
most (name, AND ID, and password) even though little if any extra
security is gained by asking for last name.
 
I actually wrote this up for a classroom "Hall of Shame" entry, so I
share it with you here.
 
Wally is a powerful system and I appreciate it.  These things are hard.
If you'd be interested in having my students perform a general
evaluation and make reccomendations, I'd be happy to discuss this.
 
Best wishes,
[snip] (name withheld)

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